It amazes me that this engineer appears to not know that Google+ Circles are already implemented in the core of Facebook as Friend Lists (though without a nice UI and pushed aside over time) and that Facebook Groups solve a completely different, unrelated problem.
His point was that he was waiting for Facebook to make their pre-emptive response to Circles, and then FB released Groups. He knows full well is solves a different problem - that was the point of what he was saying.
Not only does Groups not really do the same things as Circles/Lists at all, but Facebook appears to think that Lists don't work. Zuckerberg:
Just take friends on a site, and cut them into subgroups. Sounds good in theory. But almost no one wants to make lists. We’ve been at this for a few years, and promoted heavily. Most we’ve gotten is 5% to make lists, and most don’t make more than one.
Lists (in Facebook) suck - they UI is hidden and terrible.
Facebook Groups came out when the author expected Facebook to respond to the concepts behind Google+ Circles. It turned out that it wasn't a response to those concepts at all, and was something unrelated.
Since the author doesn't mention Facebook Friend Lists, I can only presume that he doesn't know about them otherwise they should be top of mind when looking at Google+ Circles. He even talks about "copying circles" even though they are already in the product. I'm not sure why you think he knows anything about them? Did I miss something in his article?
Yes! I use facebook much more than I otherwise would because of the Friend Lists feature. I assure you that the users to whom this feature is important have found it. I presume that Google somehow believes that the rest of you will suddenly be super impressed with this feature now it is brought to your attention.
Facebook lists provide (barely) adequate functionality for users with large and/or complex social networks to constrain sharing but, like Circles, they're a PITA to set up. Fiven most people don't need them it's no surprise they're buried in the UI, particularly given they constrain rather than encourage sharing.
To 'constrain sharing' is exactly the point. Maybe you don't want your co-workers, in-laws or not so close friends to see personal photos or posts? Myself, I participate in more than one professional and social group of people. Things I share or say to one group are irrelevant, confusing or just noise to people in the other group and vice versa. So, constraining sharing sounds fine.
I don't have a Google+ account, and don't know if it solves this, but one of the failings of FB lists is that they only control what you share, not what others share about you--there's no way to set things up so that you can have your work friends, your school friends, and your close friends all tag photos of you, but only have those tags be visible by default to other people within the same circle.
